


Heat Haze

by ruruka_ninomiya



Category: Kagerou Project, Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Kagerou Days AU, for august 15th, have some not happy children in yet another cycle of death, lots of death, not overly detailed but mentions blood a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 15:38:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11808999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruruka_ninomiya/pseuds/ruruka_ninomiya
Summary: A bright sunny summer day, the last day before Akane moves to a new school. She and Junpei get together to say goodbye. After her death at the hands of a speeding truck, they repeat the day over and over and over.





	Heat Haze

When his eyes opened that morning it took a few minutes to process that he was really awake. The sun was shining through the window and his alarm was going off. Why had he even set that? It was summer vacation, he could sleep in.

Just as he started to roll over for another hour or so of sleep it all came back. He shot out of bed, tripping over his dirty laundry while scrambling to find clothes that were clean. How on earth could he forget something so important? Her words rang in his head as he nearly pulled his jeans on over his pajama bottoms.

“I’m leaving on August 16th, so we can see each other on the 15th. To say goodbye.” Those words she said to him awhile ago. Her smile still present but forced, sad at the fate approaching them.

Childhood friends for years, Junpei and Akane were inseparable. Friends through everything, from the rabbit hut incident to her brother’s kidnapping and eventual return. Now, they were being torn apart. Having just finished middle school, the pair were excited to spend the final school years together. Until both Aoi and Akane got accepted into a private school on the other side of Japan. It was an opportunity their adopted parents couldn’t turn down.

Now here they were, the last day they would see each other for who know’s how long and Junpei was already screwing it up. He’d finally gotten dressed and grabbed his phone, a split second to skip breakfast was made and he headed out. Meeting at the park, the same one they played at everyday as kid’s, that’s what their plan was. They’d spend the entire day together, and before saying goodbye he’d tell her how he felt. He had to, it was his only chance.

“Jumpy!” Her soft, giggly voice called out the second she saw him. She sat on the swings, wearing a purple sundress and holding a cat. More specifically the cat the two of them had rescued just before summer break.

“H-Hey,” he tried to match her excitement but it was near impossible while wheezing from the run here. It killed him but he didn’t want to be late. “How are you?” He spits out a coherent sentence before nearly collapsing on the swing next to her to catch his breath.

“I’m alright. We finished all the packing today and all that’s left is… The goodbye’s. Oh! Aoi told me to send his regards, he’s spending the day with Light.” She keeps that same bittersweet smile on her face, one that shows she knows what’s coming next and she doesn’t like it. Junpei of course assumes it to be the move, and not any other fate that awaits them on the hot summer day.

“Right, those two are really close after what happened a few years ago…” Feeling the subject to sour to bring up, the brunette changes the subject before she can even blink. “It’s really nice outside today! Not a single cloud in the sky. A perfect day for our last one.” Crap, that came out more sappy than intended.

“I…” Akane starts softly, her gaze fixated straight forward at the clear blue sky, with a look of concentration and dread on her face as she sighs. “I don’t really like the summer time.” She admits, a forced laugh coming from her lips. She then turned her focus to petting the cat, tracing her fingers over the black and white lines of her fur.

“Oh, right. Well, at least it’s not raining so we can take a walk through the park!” His attempts to lighten the mood were desperate, but he wanted to see her truly smile at least once more. There was a long pause, like she was trying to see something. Then she simply nodded.

Strolling along the grass couldn’t have been more peaceful. Scratch that, if the sun wasn’t beating down on him and making him exhausted it would be even better. At least Akane seemed content now, holding her cat and humming to herself between short conversations.

“You wanna get some ice cream in a bit?” He had to break the silence, but it was so hard to find anything to talk about that wouldn’t make either of them any more sad than they already were. She didn’t say anything, just nodded.

He wanted to speak again, to say something else, but he was interrupted. The wheel of fate had began to turn, a series of unavoidable events was about to take place. But all Junpei saw, was a cat jumping from Akane’s arms and running away. Without hesitation she took off after it, and he followed right behind. She was faster than him, or maybe just got a head start. She seemed all too prepared to run suddenly. And run she did, after the cat, and right into the street.

Everything moved slowly, his body stopped at full force at the edge of the street, his arm outstretched to try and grab her. The way she screamed oh god he could never forget that piercing scream as that truck sped around the corner suddenly. Too fast to stop as the light changed to red. The large vehicle slammed into Akane’s body. Blood burst out, splattering red everywhere. Red stained the front of the truck, the street, the nearby signposts. Her hair and dress was covered in a sickening stain of deep red.

It was only a few seconds but it felt like forever. He’s not sure when everything got blurry. His vision was distorted, and he realized belatedly it was due to the tears welling up in his eyes. He clamps a hand over his mouth, holding back the desire to throw up as he finally tears his eyes off the mangled, bloody body of the girl he loved. His chest aches, nothing feels real and all he wants to do is scream. Some childish part of him wishes he could open his eyes and she’ll be there in front of him, smiling.

Instead it’s all there still. The blood, the scent, the crowd forming on the other side of the street. He can’t hear anything, it’s as if his ears have gone numb and there’s only a mocking voice inside his head. He let this happen, he didn’t protect her. It’s all his fault.

The last thing he sees before blacking out is the bright blue sky he’d thought marked a perfect summer day.

He awakes with a start, a loud gasp as he’s drenched in sweat. A nightmare, that’s all it was. Faded memories of Akane’s corpse and the scent of blood linger as he pulls himself out of bed. Without even checking he knows it’s the 15th, and he’s nearly late for meeting up. It’s all he can do to scramble into a suitable outfit and head out the door. Shaking off his nightmare is hard, especially when he sees her smiling face on the swings and only remembers the look on her dead body.

As they talked, casual conversation while avoiding the heavier topics, he couldn’t help but recall the dream still. This same park, the same clothes, and the same temperature. It was so vivid. What did it all mean? Trying to ignore it could only last so long.

Despite his internal insistence it was a dream, when they got up from the swings to walk through the park, he felt a sense of dread in his stomach. The cat jumped from her arms and he felt so nauseous from a single flash of her bloodied face that he grabbed her wrist without thought.

“We should leave.” He spoke forcefully, dragging her away before she could argue. He wouldn’t listen anyway. Akane’s life meant more than chasing after that cat. So they headed the opposite direction.

In his attempt at guiding them away from danger, he hadn’t noticed the nearby construction site they were passing as they headed towards anywhere but where they had been. He didn’t notice their surroundings until everyone nearby started to scream. He froze and looked up to gape at them all, only to find their horrified expressions aimed up higher.

Whether it was some kind of malfunction or human error nobody could say, but whatever it was caused a large beam to fall straight from the sky, piercing straight down. Piercing right through Akane’s mid section. Again a familiar scream rang out, cries and screams echoing from the nearby crowds so loud it shook the trees. The crushing pain in his chest was back, the tears welling up in his eyes as he tried to reach out to her. Her life faded away as a voice inside his head began to taunt him. Oh how he wishes this was a dream, but it’s reality.

Just before everything went black once more, he spared one last glance at her body and he could almost swear she was smiling.

That was only the beginning. Again he’d wake up, drenched in sweat with vivid nightmares of Akane’s demise. Again he’d scramble to get dressed and run to her side before everything went wrong. Again he’d try to drag her away from danger. Again her life would slip through his fingers. Again and again it all repeated, no matter what he did.

It was wearing down on him. When he greeted her he couldn’t smile anymore, he could hardly talk. He wanted to cry the second he woke up, he even considered not going to see her one time. Maybe he was the reason she kept dying. Even that didn’t work.

Still everyday she would wait for him and smile, she’d call him Jumpy and not understand his strange behavior. It seemed she couldn’t remember a thing, she had no idea what waited for her every single day. Or every rerun of the same damn summer day. He was starting to share Akane’s feelings, he truly hated summer now.

If he had to guess it’d been years by now. Not a day has passed, not even the slightest older. He wanted to scream and yell. How on earth was a kid like him supposed to save her from this awful loop in time that made no logical sense? This horrific story, a tale of woe and despair for these kids who loved each other, surely it had an ending. He had to find it. He had to.

Today, he was sure he knew how.

In a flash, a brief moment of total control over his own body, he reached out to fling Akane back towards the sidewalk and hurdled his own body into the street. The pain was unimaginable. His blood splattered everywhere, a disgusting sight that she had to see and smell. After all she’d been through, he only wanted to end her pain even at the cost of his life.

Her eyes are wide and filled with tears, I can’t hear a thing but i’m sure passersby have noticed now. A bloody tragedy that hasn’t occurred since the very first 15th, surely this is how he can fix this.

His entire body aches and his eyes can barely stay open. That mocking voice has gone silent, there’s nothing for him to hear or see anymore. This summer day, it has to finally end now.

\---

Sitting alone on her bed, a sigh falls from Akane’s lips. The sun is rising and her cat is curled up in front of her. Her phone laying flat on her bed reads August 15th. Yet another run of this awful summer day.

Tears stick to her face, the images of Junpei’s death still fresh in her mind and more traumatic than her own death. More painful to her living self. Fresh streams of held in tears pour down her face as her cat crawls into her lap, each second that passes only hurts more.

“Jumpy… I believe in you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi I'm complete garbage for zero escape and kagerou days. I wrote this at like 10 pm to midnight so it was done really quickly and not edited a lot and it's short but I just wanted to get something written for august 15th and it happened really last minute, technically posting this just before midnight on the 14th cause i'm busy tomorrow but anyway. It felt fitting because of the content of the both storylines and yeah. uncreative title cause it's late and i gave up.
> 
> First ze fanfic and first time writing akane and junpei so yay. also, akane knew she'd die and knew this would happen but believes in junpei to use the morphogentic field to save them both somehow. also also, the cat's name is june but junpei wanted to name her funyarinpa smh jumpy why


End file.
